My Truck Transformation - 94 4x4

[rkneeshaw]

Mission accomplished! Truck is back on its own weight and ready for an alignment. Had a heck of a time getting the old leafs out, had to torch both sides of both main eye bolts, thank god for torches.

A before pic for reference:

How she sits now:

Had to add a few washers to get the right amount of lift on my supercab 4.0:

So I'm guessing I have about 3.5" of lift now, which I almost needed in order to get the pivot bolt about 1" above the hub's center-line as is suggested in the tech article section.

Stats:
James Duff 3" stage 1 kit (the brackets drop the radius and pivot arms 2 inches)
about 1.25" worth of washers as coil spacers
drop pitman arm (drops steering linkage 2 inches)
"new" leafs from a 2006 ranger with only 30k miles on them
1" lift shackles
32x11.5x15 BFG's on 15x8 cragar wheels with 3.75" backspacing
James Duff shocks in the front (8108's, good for 3-4" lifts)
ProComp ES3000 (32650)shocks in the rear

Man my 32's look small now.

Do I need to go another 1" higher in the rear?

 

[EERNGER]

AAWWW Snap! That turned out awesome man!

 

[rkneeshaw]

Thanks buddy, we need to hit some trails now!

 

[outofstep]

 

[Bennybooster]

I like it!

 

[midtnranger]

looking good!

 

[rkneeshaw]

outofstep, that looks like my trucks twin! good lookin rig

Getting this thing aligned tomorrow, can't wait

 

[rkneeshaw]

Well, found bad ball joints on the drivers side. They're only 18 months old too.

So in the meantime, here are some more pics of this things progress over the last year or so.

Carpet removed for cleaning:

Painted front bumper and grill

installed grab handles

Installed procomp fogs

installed tow hooks

mounted the mag light

 

[rkneeshaw]

And hit the trails today

The duff shocks handle GREAT, very good manners on and off road. Now I have to plan to replace the procomp shocks in the rear with some duff shocks... the wife is gonna be pissed!

 

[Bennybooster]

Be careful with those tow hooks, I have the same ones in the same place and from being pulled out and from pulling out fullsizes it bent the bumper brackets outwards, now I have to replace and gusset them.

 

[rkneeshaw]

Thats good to know! I certainly won't be doing any "yanking" with these primarily because I woudlnt' want to tweak my frame either. I just dont see any cross member support up front, its not till you get back by the motor. I just hope they'll be enough to get a little pull if I need it or vice versa.

I was putting together a list of tools and parts to do my own ball joints, and I still might let the shop do it, but I figure I should have the tools to at least repack my wheel bearings. Haynes says to do it every 12 months/12,000 miles and I haven't done them at all So I'm on the hunt for a 4-prong spindle nut socket....

 

[eduardo95]

Truck is looking sick.. Very nice work on the lift bro. Keep up the good work.

 

[chrwilkins30]

If you can put a lift on i think you can do ball joints. and autozone sells the 4prong tool.

 

[rkneeshaw]

Thanks eduardo!

I did pick up a 4-prong tool at the local NAPA for $15, so I think I'm good to go, just short a ball joint press. I know the guys at a local shop that I think won't mind if I take them the knuckle and have them only press out the ball joints... they let me use their lift to install my lift kit afterall So I should have the parts by Tuesday, so it'll be next weekends project.

Wish I had an autozone that wasnt 45 miles away, I'd certainly rent the press and do it myself.

Today its oil changes all around!

 

[Bennybooster]

I would let the shop press out the joints, I had to take them my knuckles cause I couldnt get mine out